Embarrassment: Francis Maude boasted this week that Whitehall waste was being brought under control

Senior civil servants are claiming taxpayer-funded compensation which could be worth hundreds of pounds when they ladder their tights or snag their suits.

A leaked dossier on pay and perks has revealed that civil servants can claim for damaged clothing, handbags and shoes – even if their department was not to blame for the mishap.

The rules mean that a male employee who damaged a £300 woollen suit would be paid £225 if it was 12 months old and £150 if it was two years old.

A female civil servant ripping a £5 pair of tights at work can expect £4.50, even if it was her own fault.

Last night MPs accused mandarins of living in ‘a parallel universe’ after it emerged that they can even claim handouts from the public purse for battered old shoes that are more than five years old and items that are simply ‘lost’.

Documents passed to the Daily Mail by a Whitehall whistleblower reveal that the perk is just one of an array of benefits lavished on Britain’s 500,000 civil servants.

The details are an embarrassment for Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, who boasted this week that he was making huge strides in stripping out waste in the civil service.

He said: ‘We are creating a much leaner, more effective Whitehall machine that manages its finances like the best-run businesses and demands the best return for public money.

‘This Government has been relentlessly hunting down waste and shaking Whitehall up.’

What he failed to mention was that departments still compensate employees for loss or damage to personal property that ‘was caused through its negligence’ or due to ‘actions and omissions’ by ‘members of staff or contractors’.

But civil servants can also receive ‘goodwill payments’ when ‘neither the department nor you was negligent in causing the loss or damage to personal property’.

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One document provides a complex ready reckoner detailing how much staff can claim.

The compensation is paid out at generous rates, taking only slight account of wear and tear.

Under the rules, clothes made from a majority of natural fibres such as cotton and silk are judged to lose just a quarter of their value each year.

Garments made from polyester depreciate by 40 per cent for the first year and 20 per cent each following year up to a total of four years.

Thus a ripped two-year-old silk blouse worth £80 would attract compensation of £40 and the owner of a polyester garment of the same price would get £32.

It is not known how much money is claimed each year in compensation.

The dossier was leaked by an ‘appalled’ former private sector worker who recently took up a position in a Whitehall department.

Payout: Female civil servants who ladder their tights could be in line for a payout of £4.50 for a £5 pair

The whistleblower said: ‘My jaw hit the floor when I was told about all the perks I would be entitled to. There is no way you would get anything like this in the private sector – companies would go bust and the economy would collapse if you did. I think it’s important that people in the private sector know the truth about life in the civil service.

‘How anyone can go on strike over pensions and keep a straight face when they have it this easy is beyond me.’

The dossier reveals that, despite deep cuts to other areas of public spending, the cossetted working conditions enjoyed in much of the heavily-unionised civil service remain virtually unchanged.

The documents make it clear that staff will enjoy pensions ‘unmatched in the private sector’.

And they reveal that civil servants are automatically granted an extra two-and-a-half days off each year on top of a generous allocation of six weeks’ annual leave plus eight bank holidays.

The ‘privilege days’, which mark Christmas, Easter and the Queen’s official birthday, are unknown outside the public sector.

Some civil servants can even claim expenses from beyond the grave. Up to three relatives of someone awarded an honour such as an MBE can get taxpayers’ money for a cab to Buckingham Palace to receive the insignia if the recipient has died.

Tory MP Philip Davies said: ‘It’s staggering. The civil service seems to be living in a parallel universe. It just goes to show how much more Whitehall waste the government can cut.

‘Maybe the next time my shoes conk out I’ll ask the Speaker of the Commons to give me some public money to replace them because of the amount of walking I’ve done around Westminster.’

A TaxPayers’ Alliance spokesman said: ‘It’s absurd that civil servants are able to claim taxpayers’ money if they ladder their tights at work or wear out their shoes in the course of doing their job. There’s no reason they can’t accept a degree of wear and tear on their clothing like everyone else.’

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: ‘There is no free-for-all clothes replacement in the civil service. Departments can compensate employees for property damaged at work but only if there’s reasonable case for it. Abuse of the rules is not tolerated.’